Take offs and landings round the world / Nousuja ja laskuja ympäri maailman

Here comes the sun

Vitamin D. Thank you god. Something we haven’t witnessed in a while back home in Finland. I mean to feel the warmth of the sun on your skin. Not just bright light. Missing light and warmth is one of the main reasons I get really melancholic and down during fall and early winter – until you start preparing for X-mas. Days are just so short, dark, all fifty shades of grey that has nothing to do with sexual excitement but rather really just all shades of boring color grey.

Waking up to beautiful sunrise, having morning coffee on the terrace overlooking the turquoise coloured sea, feeling the ocean breeze and warmth of the tropical humid weather on your skin and knowing that you have a full day of bright sunlight ahead is something you can only dream about during those dark days. Then, all of a sudden, you wake up to living it all. Your dream comes true!

I can’t remember the last time I woke up well-rested and relaxed without an alarm the last time. It’s been even longer that I last woke up feeling fresh and actually wanting to go out for a walk or a run first thing in the morning – or doing any morning workout at all. Furthermore, being sick with a cold, suffering from fever for several days and taking antibiotics for ten days to a bad sinus infection has made my body feel all pumped with medicine and swollen because of not exercising at all. Oh, and travelling long-distance adds to the nice feeling of being all swollen.

Getting back to actually working out in the morning after a good nights sleep is soooo amazing! We had agreed on trying to go to bed early in the evening in order to wake up early and actually being able to enjoy early mornings before the heat hits in hard. There are several reasons: first of all, we all need to rest. It’s been a tough fall and long since summer break. Second, junior needs to go to bed earlier and what’s the reason for us to just stay up late long in the hotel room since can’t stay late in a bar or resto? (ok, I can think of a couple of reasons in the hotel room for adults 😉 Third, there are mosquitos in the tropics that carry all kinds or bad viruses and they come out mostly when the sun goes down. Fourth: sunrises in tropics or any place are just awesome. Don’t want to miss out on those!

After only four days in our second destination we had already established some routines: wake up 6 -6:30 in the morning. Merja goes for a morning workout. Breakfast between 7-8 am. Petri goes for his morning workout. Pool time in the morning between 8-11 or 12. Some updating on social media and reading by the pool while Leevi actually swims the whole time… Then daily siesta = nap time and cool time in the room during the hottest hours of the day between 11 to 2 p.m. You really know you need to rest if you can fall asleep easily everytime you lay your head to a pillow…

Afternoons are for finding lunch, fixing a snack or just looking around in the neighborhood, taking a local bus to visit the town or other place and exploring sights. Then, getting back to hotel between 7 and 10 to calm down and get ready for bed. Leevi actually has gone to bed at 8 mostly and us between 9-10 p.m. That way you actually wake up well-rested early in the morning – to start another beautiful day in the sun =)